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The People of the Covenant
Mgr. dr. Peter Hocken
Fr Peter Hocken, a member of the new International Theological
Commission for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, looks at how
the Catholic Church has changed its teaching and understanding
about the place of the Jewish people in Salvation history and the
implications of this for us
One of the most remarkable changes in Catholic teaching and attitudes
resulting from the Second Vatican Council concerns the Jewish people.
For the first time the Catholic Church gave an authoritative teaching on
this subject. The teaching corrects the exegesis and thinking that had
shaped Catholic attitudes to the Jews throughout the ages. Since the
Council, the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews
has issued three further documents: Guidelines on Religious Relations
with the Jews (1974); Notes on the Correct Way to present the Jews and
Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church
(1985) and We Remember (1998), a reflection on the Holocaust.
In this first article, I will first summarise the teaching of the Council,
noting how this has been developed by the Catechism of the Catholic
Church and Pope John Paul II. Where the Catechism and the Pope add
to the Council's teaching, these points are mentioned subsequently.
The Teaching of Vatican Two
The teaching of the Council on the Jewish people is found in para. 4 of
the Decree on Non-Christian Religions, Nostra Aetate (1965).
1.
“The beginning of the Church’s faith and election is to be found in
the patriarchs, Moses and the prophets.” (NA, 4). The Pope
developed this thought when he made history by visiting the
synagogue of Rome: “The Jewish religion is not “extrinsic” to us,
but in a certain way is “intrinsic” to our own religion. With
Judaism, therefore, we have a relationship which we do not have
with any other religion. You are our dearly beloved brothers and,
in a certain way, it could be said that you are our elder brothers.”
The Catechism expresses this succinctly: “When she delves into
her own mystery, the Church … discovers her link with the Jewish
People” (CCC, para. 839).
2.
God has not rejected the Jewish people, and they remain God’s
chosen covenant people: “the Jews remain very dear to God, for the
sake of the patriarchs, since God does not take back the gifts he
bestowed or the choice he made.1” (NA, 4).
3.
“Neither all Jews indiscriminately at that time, nor Jews today, can
be charged with the crimes committed during [Jesus’s] passion”
(NA, 4)2. “… the Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or
accursed as if this followed from Holy Scripture.” (NA, 4). The
1985 Vatican document states: “We must in any case rid ourselves
of the traditional idea of a people punished, preserved as a living
argument for Christian apologetic. It remains a chosen people”.
4.
“Christians and Jews have “a common spiritual heritage” (NA, 4).
Thus the proper mode for relationship to further “their mutual
understanding and appreciation” is dialogue (NA, 4).
5.
“The Church deplores all hatreds, persecutions, displays of antisemitism leveled at any time or from any source against the Jews.”
(NA, 4). On the contrary, there is to be a deep Christian respect for
the Jewish people.
The Catechism
The new Catechism of the Catholic Church, issued in 1994, reflects an
exegesis of Scripture that recognises in a new way the Jewishness of
Jesus and the first generation in the Church. Under “Jesus’
temptations”, we find: “Jesus fulfils Israel’s vocation perfectly: in contrast
to those who had once provoked God during forty years in the desert,
Christ reveals himself as God’s Servant, totally obedient to the divine
will.” (para. 539).
An important addition in the Catechism concerns the role of the Jews in
the climax of salvation history. Under the striking heading, “The glorious
advent of Christ, the hope of Israel”, we read: “The glorious Messiah’s
coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by
‘all Israel,’ for ‘a hardening has come upon part of Israel in their ‘unbelief’
towards Jesus. … The ‘full inclusion’ of the Jews in the Messiah’s
salvation, in the wake of ‘the full number of the Gentiles,’ will enable the
People of God to achieve ‘the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ,’” (CCC, para. 674).
A footnote refers to Rom. 11: 28 – 29. The CCC, para. 839, exlplicitly cites Rom. 11:
29. “for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable”.
2 See CCC, para. 597. The Catechism teaches that all sinners carry responsibility for
the sufferings of Jesus (para. 598).
1
The Catechism notes in relation to our shared hope: “God’s People of the
Old Covenant and the new People of God tend towards similar goals:
expectation of the coming (or the return) of the Messiah.” (para. 840).
John Paul II
Pope John Paul II has given his full encouragement to this new openness
towards the Jewish people. But maybe the Pope’s most distinctive
contribution is his call for Catholics to repent for the sins of the past.
This appeal was first made in the Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio
Adveniente (1994), repeated in the encyclical on ecumenism, Ut Unum
Sint (1995). While these documents did not specifically mention the
Jewish issue, it seems that this question has impelled the Holy Father
towards the call for repentance. Thus, as part of the Church’s
preparations for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 the Pope set up two
commissions to study the Catholic treatment of the Jewish people
through the ages and the Spanish Inquisition. The liturgy of repentance
in St Peter’s Basilica on 12th March, 2000, included this prayer: “God of
our fathers, you chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your Name
to the nations: we are deeply saddened by the behavior of those who in
the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and
asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine
brotherhood with the people of the Covenant.” Two weeks later in
Jerusalem, the Holy Father followed Jewish custom by placing this
prayer in a crevice of the Western (wailing) wall. This gesture more than
anything else symbolised a revolutionary change opening the door to a
different future. A further article will look at some of the implications.
This article was published in the magazine Good News, november/december 2003
and with permission on web site StuCom, http://home.hetnet.nl/~stucom or www.kcv-net.nl/stucom, document 0125uk
Document 0104uk tells more about Peter Hocken.
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